The words "prisoner release" may be stress-provoking for most, but tonight their meaning pierces the hearts of those residing in the Land of Milk and Honey. Tonight there is no sweetness, no nourishing of the soul. Tonight 26 individuals, all of whom were found guilty of murder, or were an accessory to murder, were released from prison. They are now free to roam the land and free to reign terror........again.
With a glance at my phone I note the time; it is 12:48 am. Barely two hours ago the prison doors opened, within the past hour homes in Gaza and Ramallah were filled with great joy. The usual celebrations in these regions will follow, as they have after every other prisoner release. But in the homes of their victims there will forever remain an empty bed, an empty chair at the table, empty places in hearts.
The release was for peace, or so they say. But just last night before sleep brought relief, the news brought word of a rocket in the south. Two more came this evening, the usual premonition of an onslaught.
My day with the girls in Jerusalem was joyful, but always on bustling Ben Yehuda Street, where tourists and residents gather for shopping, dining, and outdoor entertainment, the ghosts of young lives taken in past bombings walk among us. They tell us their stories while their murderers prepare for freedom.
Why would such heinous criminals be freed? Was it a long overdue parole? A second chance for good behavior? While the Ted Bundys of the world are put to death to make it safer for those who despise violence and destruction, there is one country in the Middle East that is told it can't. It has many policymakers, many deal makers, and many who wish to annihilate it. But it knows its place, its purpose. It waits, it takes orders, it makes sacrifices. It does so because if it doesn't stay in the game, the entire region will become a continent of chaos, ruled by randomness and consumed by cruelty. The world knows this too. It sits in fear and dares Israel to be different, to be defiant, yet orders it to be conciliatory. The human casualties will increase, but her role still stands. She is the Holy Land, the land of sacrifice and miracles. Her existence is essential for the presence of morality in this part of the world. Her very existence proves that miracles exist.
Tonight my heart weeps for Adi Moses, scarred from the 1987 firebomb attack that killed her pregnant mother when she was only eight years old. Her three year old brother succumbed to the excruciating burns and the complications that followed. But her scars are not just emotional. The burns that covered her tiny body left her physically scarred. And many times each week, for the past 26 years, she has answered the question, "What happened to you?" Yet despite the two-plus life sentences, her mother and brother's murderer is slated for release in the coming weeks.
But Adi's story is far from unique. In fact, 103 more murderous creatures are slated for release:
".........Also being released is Barbakh Faiz Rajab Madhat, who murdered 61-year-old Moshe Beker at his orchard. Beker was murdered on January 21 1994, when he arrived at his orchard and was ambushed by three terrorists, who had slept on site and waited for him. They attacked him, stabbed him to death with a knife and a pair of pruning shears, and fled.
Al Haj Othman Amar Mustafa, who murdered Steven Rosenfeld on June 7, 1989, will be released as well. Rosenfeld went on a hike in the hills near Ariel, where he lived, when he encountered a group of shepherds who stole a knife that he had in his possession, stabbed him to death, and hid his body."
(http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3053585/posts)
My heart is heavy for the other innocents, those who were lost, maimed, permanently disfigured by firebombs, stabbings, boulders, axes, and explosive belts. My heart is heavy as well for those that voted to release these creatures embodying inhumanity to walk the earth, released back into this Land, which should have been filled with the sweetness of milk and honey. The milk is swiftly souring, the honey is sticky with rules that morality cannot survive.
Please forgive me my humanity. And G-d bless yours. May He help us all.
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